Unconfirmed Number of Twitter Account Owners Asked to Reset Their Passwords

February 2, 2010 - By Justin E. Gehrke

February 2, 2010 – According to unconfirmed, published reports on numerous technology news websites, a large number of Twitter users are receiving messages directing them change their passwords as soon as possible. The speculation is that a large scale phishing attack may have occurred or still be in progress.

Though no specific details were given, Twitter’s Safety Account (@Safety) posted a tweet at approximately 11:00 ET stating:

“Got an email from us saying we’ve reset your password? A small # of accts seemed possibly affected offsite & we took a precautionary step.”

The important thing for users to remember is that even if they receive an email or direct message purporting to be from Twitter, do not click on the link. Instead, type https://twitter.com into the address bar of the browser, to log in using a secure connection. From there, navigate to the password change option and (Here’s the important part.) set a new password that is completely different from the current one. Remember that including the word “twitter” in the password is a phenomenally bad idea. As with any password, word phrases that include a combination of upper and lowercase letters, special characters and numbers are strongly suggested, since they are much harder to crack.

Though this type of news may have been passed around numerous times, do friends and followers a favor by tweeting this post on to them, via the “Tweet This” button below to keep them in the know, too.